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Tauranga is now the twelfth most expensive city in the world behind larger cities including Sydney, New York, and Hong Kong. In the last year, more than 150 homes in the region sold for a million dollars or more.

Priced out of the market, the Matthews are renting. But that too, comes with a hefty price tag, so they've turned to Airbnb, with the permission of their landlord.

"We have a spare room and a spare bathroom, so we thought: 'Why not rent that out short term over summer?'"

During peak summer periods the Matthews can charge around $100 per night, but opt to have only four or five visitors a week.

"We don't have a long term tenant so we don't have someone in our space all the time and we can pick and choose when we want to have visitors and when we don't. And it's really good, they're paying per night instead of a weekly fee. It helps us out a lot," Tiffany said.

The Matthews are one of more than 1200 families listing their Tauranga homes or rooms on Airbnb.

"At first we thought it might have been a bit weird having people we don't know living with us, but we've probably had 150 people and only two or three we don't feel comfortable with.

"We make sure to ask plenty of questions before we accept bookings. We love meeting new people and the kids love meeting new people."

While house prices in some suburbs may be out of reach, it's not all doom and gloom.

Anderson suggested looking at places such as Greerton and Judea, where houses go for around $500,000.

And for the Matthews family, even without a house to call their own, they say living in Tauranga is worth every penny.